40 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 7 



From which, deduct hand hire for 

 getting fodder, - 



10 60 



£534 00 



The time I was employed about it was about 

 seven months, and my labor yielded me at the rate 

 of, or about, seventy-six dollars per month. I do 

 often fondly look back upon that year, and all 

 looks like the work of magic. Truly the God of 

 nature was with me, though I knew it not. 



N. B. My Irish potatoes turned out less than 

 the seed I planted. I thought that the more I 

 ploughed and worked them the more I would 

 make, and consequently, worked them about eight 

 times, and found, to my astonishment, that I had 

 the finest vines I ever saw, but no potatoes larger 

 than a partridge egg, or thereabouts — and they 

 lew and far between. 



J. L. 



ANOTHER COLT FROM A MULE. MARL AND 

 MARLED LANDS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



Spring Hill, Nansemond } 

 County, 17th Sept., 1S35. <j 



Permit me to record in your Register, the birth 

 of a second mule colt of mine, on (he 13th of 

 August, 1835. The same mule brought a fine 

 female colt, jet black, save a star in its forehead, 

 undone foot white. It partakes, as did the other, 

 more of the horse, than of the mule, and is a 

 much finer colt. It can be seen in my pasture by 

 any and every one. 



I really should like to be informed by you, how 

 it is that you have made such good corn, as I saw 

 the other day, in that old field just above Mrs. 

 Gary's: I suppose by marl and proper manage- 

 ment.* 



Last fall I sent to Baltimore for 30 bushels of 

 wheat to seed 30 acres of land, 20 clover lay and 

 10 after oats. I got but 24, and fearing that I 

 should not have enough, I directed my old man 

 to make it hold out. He only sowed 21 bushels, 

 and I made this year therefrom, near 500 bushels. 

 The clover lay averaging 20 to the acre, and the 

 oat land not 10; so that you see, I made about 25 

 bushels for one bushel sowed. This wheat has 

 been made, first, by the use of marl, then some 

 manure, which produced the clover, and finally, 

 the wheat has been made. Twelve years ao;o this 

 land would not have produced five bushels of 

 wheat to the acre. It not only now produces 

 wheat, but every thing else in proportion. Yes, 

 sir, and such are the means within the reach of 

 many, very many persons in old Nansemond, to 

 improve their worn out land; and believe me, they 

 discard them. I do not mean all — for we have 

 some tew noble spirits in the good old cause of im- 

 proving the soil — and would to God that we had 

 more; for our whole tide water country is filled 

 with marl, more or less deep under the earth. 

 Several years ago, in digging a well in the Dis- 



*By marl (and a light dressing) alone. There is by 

 no means such a growth as to excite admiration, ex- 

 cept upon the ground of the previous poverty of the 

 land. Ed. 



mal Swamp, eight feet below the surface, a fine 

 bed of marl was entered. It is evident to me, that 

 our whole country abounds in it more or less; and 

 that it is of use, when properly applied, I think 

 no rational man will gainsay, but it requires great 

 exertions to bring it into use. A circumstance 

 happened in my neighborhood of more service to 

 our cause, than all the talking that you and I could 

 do. Many of my neighbors had been laughing 

 at me for years, when at last, I prevailed on one 

 of them, a very amiable man, but very poor, to 

 use a little marl upon his poor old field. It made 

 such a difference in the crop, that all became at 

 once convinced, and are now trying to get it. Sir, 

 we must improve our lands, and as toe have the 

 means of domcr it, why should we leave our na- 

 tive country, for the south and the west? That 

 country, or a large portion of it, must in time be 

 worn out, and then there is no possible means of 

 reclaiming it. It must be exhausted from the na- 

 ture of things. So much is now made, that the 

 proprietor or occupant of the soil, are flushed with 

 success, and never stop to look what will be the 

 result at a future day. But poor old Nansemond, 

 that has heretofore stood at the lowest possible ebb, 

 begins now to hold up her head. With some as fine 

 land as any in the world, if the water was taken 

 off, (and that is fast disappearing or lessening every 

 year, from various causes,) with marl and lime all 

 in reach, and ample means of acquiring manure 

 — with easy means of access to good markets, 

 and land very cheap, why should we, I say, go 

 south or west? No! let those who dream and 

 speculate in visions, go — let others, that I could 

 name, go — but let those who live for others, as 

 well as themselves, and who are desirous of im- 

 proving the soil at home, remain. I, sir, do verily 

 believe, (while I candidly confess that all my feel- 

 ings are in the mountains of Virginia,) that the 

 country from Suffolk to Norfolk will, in the 

 course of time, be the garden spot of the union, 

 so soon as the timber is gone, and the water re- 

 moved, (which might easily be done, but the way 

 I shall not here point out.) The timber is fast 

 falling before the axe, and the water is fast disap- 

 pearing. The health of the country will then im- 

 prove — and with good land, the ample means of 

 improvement, and a market at our door, why 

 should not, the country be filled up? It will — it must 

 be. So, I say, with all my prejudices in the moun- 

 tains, (for I am of mountain birth, or so near so as 

 occasionally to feel the bracing north-west wind 

 sweeping over those romantic hills, the beautiful 

 scenery of which must delight any man, that is 

 not dead to the feeling of all nature, and whose very 

 soul is not wrapped up in the visionary schemes 

 of the golden region — ) I say, with all my feelings 

 in the mountains, I am constrained, and must say, 

 that we down here, (as Jack Downing would 

 say — "down east,") have advantages that few pos- 

 sess. And already have our lands begun to at- 

 tract the attention of some very well informed 

 gentlemen — for they see clearly that while we 

 have disadvantages, yet we have many, many 

 advantages — and show me, sir, if you can, the 

 place that has no disadvantages. 



Before I close, I will tell you what a southern 

 gentleman told me and others lately. He is a great 

 advocate for all going south. He acknowledged 

 that since he had been to the south (22 or 23 

 years,) that he had completely worn out his land 



